Learn about the steps you can take to help your child as they recover from binge eating disorder.

<p>As a parent, you know your child best. If you suspect your child has a <a href="/Article?contentid=277&language=English">binge eating disorder (BED) </a> , there are a number of steps that you can take to support their recovery.</p>​

<h2>Key points</h2>
<ul>
<li>It is important to seek treatment for binge eating disorder as soon as you suspect it. Treatment can include therapy to help bring more structure to a person's eating habits and help them feel more in control with food.</li>
<li>Other ways to help your child include being a healthy role model, sharing healthy messages about food and creating structured mealtimes and snacks.</li>
<li>You may also need to make smaller but more frequent shopping trips and improve your child's sleep routine to help support their recovery.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Seek treatment</h2>
<p>It is important to seek treatment as soon as you suspect BED. ​​Early treatment is the best possible way to recovery.</p>
<p>The three main goals of treatment for binge eating disorder are to:</p>
<ul>
<li>reduce binges</li>
<li>create structure and stability around your child's meals and snacks</li>
<li>help someone with the disorder feel more in control of their eating</li>
</ul>
<p>Different types of therapy are available for binge eating disorder. The most common one is <a href="/Article?contentid=702&language=English">cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)</a>. Through therapy, a child or teen can learn to regulate their eating patterns and identify possible emotional triggers for binge episodes.</p>

Learn about the steps you can take to help your child as they recover from binge eating disorder.

<p>As a parent, you know your child best. If you suspect your child has a <a href="/Article?contentid=277&language=English">binge eating disorder (BED) </a> , there are a number of steps that you can take to support their recovery.</p>​

<h2>Key points</h2>
<ul>
<li>It is important to seek treatment for binge eating disorder as soon as you suspect it. Treatment can include therapy to help bring more structure to a person's eating habits and help them feel more in control with food.</li>
<li>Other ways to help your child include being a healthy role model, sharing healthy messages about food and creating structured mealtimes and snacks.</li>
<li>You may also need to make smaller but more frequent shopping trips and improve your child's sleep routine to help support their recovery.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Seek treatment</h2>
<p>It is important to seek treatment as soon as you suspect BED. ​​Early treatment is the best possible way to recovery.</p>
<p>The three main goals of treatment for binge eating disorder are to:</p>
<ul>
<li>reduce binges</li>
<li>create structure and stability around your child's meals and snacks</li>
<li>help someone with the disorder feel more in control of their eating</li>
</ul>
<p>Different types of therapy are available for binge eating disorder. The most common one is <a href="/Article?contentid=702&language=English">cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)</a>. Through therapy, a child or teen can learn to regulate their eating patterns and identify possible emotional triggers for binge episodes.</p>

<h2>Be a healthy role model</h2>
<p>As a parent or caregiver, you are a role model for your children. It is important to promote not only a healthy body image in children but also to show that you have a healthy body image. Avoid saying negative things about your physical appearance and weight. Instead, focus on what your body can do and on your positive attributes that have nothing to do with appearance.</p>
<h2>Share healthy messages about food</h2>
<p>Dieting can often lead to binge eating behaviour because it involves restricting or cutting out certain foods. If your child is depriving themselves of food, or is encouraged to do so, they are more likely to binge.</p>
<p>Part of being a healthy role model is sharing healthy messages about food. You can do this by adopting a diet-free culture at home. Minimize talk about good or bad foods and focus instead on the benefits of food for overall health. Emphasizing health and nutrition, rather than fat content and calories, will help your child develop a healthy relationship with food.</p>
<h2>Create a regular pattern of family mealtimes</h2>
<p>Make eating meals together as a family a priority, starting when your child is young. Eating as a family also promotes strong family bonds and better communication.</p>
<p>People who binge may have chaotic eating schedules. As a parent, you can help by providing the structure needed to stop the binge episodes.​</p>
<p>Create structure around mealtimes and schedule frequent meals and snacks throughout the day (for example three meals and two snacks) so your child eats regularly. Avoid skipping meals.</p>
<h2>Supervise your child at certain times of day</h2>
<p>If you notice that your child is more likely to binge at certain times of the day (for example in the evening) or in specific situations (such as during exams), consider supervising them and offering more support during these times.</p>
<h2>Make smaller but more frequent shopping trips</h2>
<p>If you notice food disappearing from your cupboards or fridge more quickly than usual, try to limit the amount of food in your house at any one time. This means making smaller but more frequent grocery shopping trips.</p>
<p>Also limit your child's access to spending money if you are concerned they will buy food and binge when unsupervised.</p>
<h2>Sleep hygiene</h2>
<p>Help your child maintain good <a href="/Article?contentid=646&language=English">sleep hygiene​</a>. This means following a bedtime routine that allows your child get enough sleep each night so that they are well rested and do not confuse tiredness for hunger the next day.</p>
<p>Good sleep hygiene includes:</p>
<ul>
<li>avoiding electronic devices in the hour or two before bedtime</li>
<li>using the bed only for sleeping (rather than studying or going online)</li>
<li>having suitable lighting in the room</li>
<li>using a comfortable bed and suitable bedding, such as blankets in the winter</li>
<li>going to bed and getting up at the same time every day</li>
<li>allowing time to wind down before bedtime</li>
</ul>

AboutKidsHealth is proud to partner with the following sponsors as they support our mission to improve the health and wellbeing of children in Canada and around the world by making accessible health care information available via the internet.